COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on every facet of American life. The impact will reverberate for generations. The global pandemic—and the U.S. government’s response to it—has threatened the lives and liberties of Americans as well as the United States’ standing in the world.

This disaster is a call to action. The rate of U.S. military spending was unsustainable long before the COVID-19 pandemic. The threat posed by nontraditional security challenges, including pandemics, climate change, and malicious disinformation, should prompt a thoroughgoing reexamination of the strategies, tactics, and tools needed to keep the United States safe and prosperous.

In Cato’s new report, Building a Modern Military: The Force Meets Geopolitical Realities, authors Eric Gomez, Christopher Preble, Lauren Sander, and Brandon Valeriano identify the most effective and efficient means for advancing Americans’ safety and prosperity. The report prioritizes ending the forever wars, terminating needless military spending, rethinking the fundamentals of strategic deterrence, and focusing the entire defense establishment on innovation and adaptation.